“More than hell”: Gazans apprehended during a raid on an Al-Shifa hospital

During a multi-day Israeli invasion, Palestinians outside the main hospital in the Gaza Strip have seen relentless bombing, mass arrests, tanks, and dead lying throughout the streets with no end in sight.

 

On Monday, Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas terrorists began their operation in and around the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, stating that top operators were stationed inside the expansive facility.

The military claims that since then, hundreds more Palestinian terrorists have been detained or interrogated, and that around 150 of them have been murdered.

Furthermore, Israeli soldiers have not shown a desire to retreat after five days.

Mohammed, 59, who only provided his first name and lives around 500 meters (0.3 miles) near Al-Shifa, stated, “Everyone is afraid of being executed or arrested.”

At a hospital morgue in Rafah, Palestinians grieve for relatives who were murdered in the Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip.
A boy gets shot, and a firework is fired. Examined is Israel’s use of lethal force against Palestinian youngsters.
“I feel that Gaza has become worse than the fires of hell,” he said to AFP.

“I noticed tanks obstructing the roads leading to the hospital and a large number of corpses on Al-Shifa Street. A home close to Al-Shifa had flames, as I saw.”

Mohammed said that the Al-Rimal neighborhood and the Al-Shati refugee camp, which are nearby, are like “ghost towns” since there aren’t many people living there.

The war started on October 7, when Hamas launched an offensive on southern Israel, and many Palestinians in the territory’s north, where Gaza City is situated, fled south early in the conflict.

More people have fled Al-Shifa in search of safety elsewhere as a result of the most recent raid, which comes after a military operation there in November that provoked worldwide outcry.

AFP film showed crowds of Palestinians escaping the hospital attack on Thursday by moving south along Gaza’s shore.

50-year-old Al-Rimal resident Mahmoud Abu Amra said that Israeli forces forced “women and children to go west to Al-Rashid road on the coast, and then to the south of the Gaza Strip”.

The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people still live in the north, where they must endure appalling circumstances and severe shortages of necessities.

According to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled region, Israel’s military operation against Hamas has killed at least 32,070 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of them were women and children.

An AFP calculation of official numbers indicates that 1,160 people died as a consequence of the strike on October 7, the majority of them civilians.

At a hospital morgue in Rafah, Palestinians grieve for relatives who were murdered in the Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip.
The US resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza is vetoed by China and Russia.

Abu Amra reported seeing Israeli commandos searching residences and residential structures in Gaza City’s west before daybreak on Friday.

“These forces evacuated all residents from their homes, and forced all men over the age of 16 to strip completely except for their underwear,” he said.

“They tied them up, beat them with rifle butts, insulted them and took them to a school near Al-Shifa hospital for interrogation and detention.”

Israel has insisted that what it did complied with international law.

“It is frequently necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes… to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry,” the Israeli military told AFP.

“Detainees are given back their clothes when it’s possible to do so,” it said.

Israel claimed for a long time that the expansive Al-Shifa complex, which houses patients and personnel along with displaced Palestinians, is situated over a subterranean Hamas command center.

Hamas has denied any military use of the facility.

“Continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Al-Shifa Hospital area while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” the Israeli army announced on Friday.